94 Corruption And Crocodiles

Empowered by a vast array of new abilities, the submerged god quietly contemplated how to proceed. Even now he had followers who were doing their best to evangelize and to persuade people to submit to him and to whisper his praises, so he needed to focus on where he would be the most effective.

In Puerto Rico there were still plenty of places where his influence was either nonexistent or minimal. And he didn't like that. It wasn't conducive to his goals, so he set about changing it.

A portion of his mind turned its lofty intelligence and powers to the city of San Gerardo, a portion turned to the settlements of the orcs, hyenoids, the community of kobolds, and another portion turned to the dark elven settlement of Aronms.

That said, though the god wasn't happy with his limited control of Puerto Rico, he was a patient sort. He knew from successful allies like Drow and Lilim that oftentimes all he needed was a single skilled ally. He was allowed to be annoyed, but he needn't pretend that his hard work would be for naught if it didn't succeed today. He had all the time in the world.

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The land beyond the Rodan forest was strange territory. It was a valley at the edge of a mountain that housed four distinct civilizations: hyenoids, ogres, orcs, and kobolds.

The hyenoids were the most numerous of these civilizations, numbering over several hundred members. As a species, they resembled bipedal hyenas, and their attitudes matched their appearance.

Althos had actually encountered two of these creatures in the past. He fought against them and won, and revealed that he was the guardian of the vast and mysterious Rodan forest. The two Althos had met scouts, sent out to explore the forest before they encountered the creature they now identified as its "angry guardian".

After his initial conflict with him they had rarely crossed his mind again. He knew a bit about them, thanks to his ability to detect when people do things related to the domains he can influence, but he had paid them little mind to date.

Althos was more interested in the ogres. A tribe of a few dozen ogres lived in the valley beyond the Rodan forest. These ogres included the ogresses named Iret and Okig. Althos had successfully converted both of them into his worshipers, though Iret took a bit longer than he would have liked to convert.

The ogres were a violent species of massive, evil humanoids and though over three dozen of them lived in the area beyond the forest, only 7 of them worshiped Althos. That didn't prevent Althos from being fond of them though. They were Althos' favorite kind of worshipers.

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Over the course of the last few days, I had gradually mastered a new technique to increase my efficiency as a god and worker. It was simple, and only possible thanks to a handy trickery domain ability.

First, I split my consciousness into the number of portions I thought I'd need to accomplish a task. Second, I created projections of myself equal to the number of portions I split my consciousness into. And third, I teleported myself wherever I was going to go to get a task completed.

Once I had split my consciousness, I teleported each portion of myself to a new area. Because of this I was active all over the island and doing different things in each place.

In a flash, I was not just located in the undersea temple, I was also located at the edge of the ogre camp, the outskirts of Aronms, and even just outside of San Gerardo itself.

In each case, I wasn't alone. The part of me that was located in San Gerardo was accompanied by a shape-shifted earth-bear, the part of me just outside of the ogre encampment was accompanied by my amarok wolf and a drider, and the me on the outskirts of Aronms was accompanied by a Sobek, the evolved form of the black caiman I had once befriended.

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Each night in the ogre encampment one of my followers devoted herself to the pursuit of her desires. This was a rather primal, carnal practice that I encouraged while she slept in her dreams. Tonight I was paying her a visit, though she didn't know that. Which was why I could hear her from a healthy distance away.

The truth was I didn't need to rely on hearing to detect her and her two mates, men she had convinced to come live with her. She lived on the outskirts of her people's encampment and the fire the tents of her and her companions happened to be centered around was located far enough that I could differentiate it from the other fires the ogres set.

I began to slowly approach it, followed by two of the creatures I had awoken and then evolved days ago, and as I did so I could hear Iret's sybaritic moans. As I listened to them, I chuckled.

I looked at my two companions and began to tell them the story of how I first met the ogress we were on our way to see.

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"So all she wanted was to beat the fuck out of her superior?" My drider companion asked me, by the time we reached the fire that we had set off towards. I nodded at the evolved-spider, and the thing began to laugh. He had a way with words, and his choice of vocabulary was something I liked about him.

"How strange." Remarked the amarok wolf, somewhat idly. The shadow-furred creature was one of the very first wolves I had willed to evolve when I gained power over the Canis subdomain. It was now no longer alone, but at the time it had spent nearly a day alone aside from the company of a gregarious earth-bear I had created to experiment with my powers.

"Well it wasn't just that. She was repressing herself. Getting her to beat the shit of Okig was a part of getting her to stop repressing herself." I explained, after giving the matter a bit of thought.

Aside from our idle conversations and the sounds of the crackling flames near us, I could hear the muffled moans of one of the first mortals to worship me. She and two more of my ogrish worshipers had shacked up in the days since my undead horde defeated an encampment of reptilefolk.

The moans were muffled because of the fact that their threesome was taking place behind a thick and impressively large tent made of many layers of tanned animal skins. But that didn't stop me from receiving the energy of their lust-filled prayers. The truth was, of all of the payers I had received it was the lust-filled ones I liked the most. That said, I had come here for a real reason. I only intended to wait a bit longer.

Iret and Okig both had their own forms of worshipping me. Iret's was focused on sex and sexuality and I tended to get my prayers from her when she was being mated with by her two mates. This caught me off-guard when it first happened but in the days since I've gotten used to it. Even now I could feel a strange sense of piety emanating from the tent not far from me.

Okig's form of worship came across most distinctly whenever she successfully finished a hunt. This was the case during the first few days after she became a worshiper of mine and has become more the case in the days since I granted her the rogue class.

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The fraction of myself that was within the city of San-Gerardo was guarded by the gregarious earth-bear I had created days ago. I was quite fond of the bear. Some of the Althonians had taken to calling him Fluffy, as towards me and his fellow Althonians he was friendly and approachable even if he wasn't towards other people.

As the two of us made our way down a crowded street inside of San-Gerardo, I found myself studying his form. The bear currently had the appearance of a powerfully built and large man, and I had the appearance of a traveling merchant.

My ally stood well over two meters tall. He was actually naked, but I had wrapped him in an illusion that made him look like he was wearing simple overalls.

I wore a plain outfit that was a replica of what I had once seen Mateo wear in the days since I had discovered the truth about Isadora. It was a simple merchant's outfit made up of white pants, and a white button-up top, hidden from view by a vest that was the color of emerald snake's scales.

I had actually made this outfit myself using a collection of my powers. I quite like constructing something real that wasn't just solidified light or darkness.

All around us human and almost-human denizens of San-Gerardo were hard at work. I could hear thousands of conversations concerning just as many topics throughout the city. And many of them were inspiring.

"Now... how can I most maximize what I can do here tonight?" I asked myself. I had come to the city tonight to begin to actually lay my eyes on the place, and determine where and how I could best create a variety of cults.

San-Gerardo was a large enough place that I could easily create a number of different cults here. All I needed to do was decide which sorts of cults I wanted to plant the seeds of tonight. I had so many choices I could do.

I was unsure of where to go at first and kept walking aimlessly while exploring my not-so-mini-map. And then I found it. The perfect place for corruption: a clandestine brothel.

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[Crocodilia subdomain details:

The crocodilia subdomain is the subdomain that governs alligators, crocodiles, caimans, and a few other predatory, reptilian species. As a subdomain that governs predatory creatures, it is a powerful subdomain that grants you considerable powers.

To gain further influence over this subdomain, build lizard-cults and master the abilities this subdomain grants you.

Special note:

As you gain an expanded catalog of powers some of yours may start to seem redundant. Keep in mind that in most cases you can grant these abilities, or at least a watered-down version of them, to your worshipers. This is especially true for animal subdomains.

Crocodilia subdomain passive powers:

Internal flexibility: You can rearrange the location of your organs or those of your followers. This is an ability that allows your servants and worshipers a more flexible body while also granting them enhanced durability.

Aquatic mode: You can bestow upon your followers an amphibian form which grants them enhanced mobility and strength underwater. They can enter this form at will.

Vibration detection: You gain enhanced sensitivity to the vibrations other creatures give off.

Dermal armor: At will, you can generate a tough layer of scale-like skin, known as scutes.

Crocodile king: You are the undisputed lord of unawakened and unevolved Crocodilians. You can evolve them into reptilefolks, lizardpeople, and other, more primal forms of Crocodilians at will.

Crocodilia subdomain active powers:

Sonic strike: By fusing the power of the physics domain and the Crocodilia subdomain you can launch a sonic strike at your enemy that assails their reptile brain specifically. When you use this once a day power, nearby humanoids begin to experience heart palpitations as you assault the part of the mind that dictates the heartbeat.

Crocodile curse: By focusing on the domain of chaos and the Crocodilia subdomain you can transform someone into a crocodile against their will. They become a crocodile for up to a week.

Crocodilia subdomain blessing and curse details:

Blessing someone with this subdomain grants them kinship with crocodiles and their relatives and improves their ability to swim and hunt. Cursing someone, predictably, does the opposite.]

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For a brief moment, Althos recalled the moment when he first read through the notification alerting him to the powers of the Crocodilia subdomain. At the time he had smiled and muttered something about starting a reptile cult that gradually wrapped its members into humanoid-reptile hybrids.

He actually quite liked that idea. It was one of many he had stored away for when he came across the right type of humanoid and the right environment that that humanoid would flourish in.

He could imagine that the right type of humanoid who had access to both a crocodile's strength and a snake's poison would be a fantastic servant and a great enforcer. He just had to keep his eyes open.